London Heathrow Limits Passengers To 100 000 Per Day

The airport says the cap will limit disruption to passengers Up to 125,000 were departing daily in the summer of 2019 Cap will run until September 11th

LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) – London Heathrow said it will limit departing passengers to 100,000 a day this summer to reduce queues, baggage delays and cancellations, and asked airlines to stop selling tickets for flights that could be restricted. Britain’s busiest airport, like others across Europe, is struggling to cope as demand recovers after the pandemic. Heathrow had between 110,000 and 125,000 daily passenger departures in July and August 2019. Airlines at Heathrow had already responded to a government call to reduce capacity, but the airport said they needed to go further. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “Some airlines have taken significant action, but others have not and we believe further action is needed now to ensure passengers have a safe and reliable journey,” chief executive John Holland-Kaye said in an open letter on Tuesday. “We have therefore taken the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap with effect from July 12 to September 11.” “We recognize that this will mean that some summer trips will either be moved to another day, to another airport or canceled and we apologize to those whose travel plans are affected,” he added. The London hub said the cap was in line with the limits applied to its competitors. Schiphol in the Netherlands has cut passenger numbers around 16% below 2019 levels, while Frankfurt has cut peak-hour flights from 104 per hour to 94. Heathrow said the average number of outbound seats still remaining on summer routes was 104,000 a day, 4,000 above the cap. He said an average of 1,500 of those 4,000 seats had been sold to passengers. “We are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers,” he said. British Airways ( ICAG.L ), Heathrow’s biggest customer, has already cut thousands of flights from its routes this summer due to staff shortages. Heathrow apologized on Monday for the long queues and baggage problems experienced by customers in recent weeks, blaming staff shortages across the aviation sector. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Paul Sandle in London. Editing by Aditya Soni, William James and David Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.